Shooting across from King's Housing

Police standing in front of the entrance to Albee housing. || Photo credit to Rachel Williamson

On the morning of November 8, King’s students leaving 436 Albee Square were greeted by caution tape and a few lingering reporters--the only remaining traces of what was an active crime scene late Wednesday night. A violent dispute between several men resulted in the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Carlton Spender in the Target across from The King’s College’s campus housing.

Several King’s students heard the gunshot from their CityPoint apartments. Junior Emma Gray was in a 12th floor apartment when a shot was fired, and immediately went on the balcony to see where it came from.

“We hear a gunshot, kind of soft...and we go outside and all these people are running from [Willoughby] Street, I’d say five to seven people.”

Gray described an apparent chase between two small groups of men, and she watched as they ran into the CityPoint shopping center from various entrances.

“All the sudden they start sprinting up the escalators, one of them throws his backpack to the bottom of the escalator. As of now, 2 hours after it happened, it’s still there,” Gray said.

Several Police examined the scene on the first floor lobby of CityPoint nearly an hour after the dispute, leaving the backpack as untouched evidence.

The backpack thrown at the bottom of the escalator. || Photo credit to Rachel Williamson.

Gray and three other King’s students watched from the balcony as one of the men involved hid behind trash cans on the second floor of CityPoint for a few minutes before chaos broke out again.

“One of them had a knife, and they were still chasing each other. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Gray said she watched the group run outside and start to physically assault one of men involved. “They get this guy on the ground, they’ve got a knife, and I’m thinking this is it, I’m gonna watch someone die.”

Gray said he didn’t look fatally injured, and when the police arrived he was sitting on the sidewalk before being taken to one of the four ambulances that were at the scene at one point.

Around 11:15 p.m. the NYPD arrived, and according to ABC7NY, they took five men in total into custody--including the shooter and the man the shooter passed the gun off to afterwards. The investigation is ongoing.

When asked how she felt about the incident being so close to her CityPoint residency, Gray admitted that while it was nerve-racking to watch she realizes that it is “not that out of the ordinary.”

“I was scared while watching it, but I also wanted to know what was going on.” Gray said. “It hasn’t changed how I feel about living here. This is New York City and it happens all the time, and you kind of have to accept that.”